Guerrillas help scientists locate literacy in brain

Colombian guerrillas have helped researchers to locate literacy part of brain

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Wednesday, 14, Oct 2009 06:01

By Sarah Garrod

A study of former Colombian guerrillas has helped scientists to redefine their understanding a part of the brain involved in literacy.

The study has enabled researchers to see how brain structure changed after a person learnt how to read.

Funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, researchers looked at literacy on the brain structure, saying that literacy is a learnt skill that does not develop without intensive tuition and practice, unlike talking.

The researchers said: "Understanding how our brain structures change as we learn to read has proved difficult as the majority of people learn to read when they are children, at the same time as learning many other skills.

"Separating the changes caused by reading from those caused by, for example, learning social skills or how to play football, is almost impossible.

"Studying adult learners is also challenging because in most educated societies adult illiteracy is typically the result of learning impairments or poor health."

Researchers from the UK, Spain and Colombia published their findings in Nature. They studied former guerrillas in Colombia who were re-integrated into mainstream society and learning to read for the first time as adults.

They found that for those participants who had learnt to read, the density of grey matter (where the 'processing' is done) was higher in several areas of the left hemisphere of the brain. Reading also increased the strength of the 'white matter' connections between the different processing regions.

The findings are likely to prove useful for researchers trying to understand the causes of dyslexia, as studies of dyslexics have shown regions of reduced grey and white matter in regions that grow after learning to read.

The new study suggests that some of the differences seen in dyslexia may be a consequence of reading difficulties rather than a cause.